Founder's Message

Jared R. Nakahara founded the Kidney Health Innovation and Leadership Program at UCLA in 2025. The program was supported by the Bruin Beans Health Club at UCLA under presidents Rain H. Wong and Simran Ovalekar, the CORE Kidney Foundation at UCLA Health, and Dr. Anjay Rastogi, the clinical chief of Nephrology at UCLA Health. Jared founded KHILP with the belief that meaningful mentorship and educational opportunities can transform the future generation of health professionals. 

As a UCLA student, Jared was involved in healthcare outreach, biomedical research, and leadership through the UCLA Bruin Beans Health Club. Through these experiences, he recognized that many motivated high school students, especially those from underserved and underrepresented communities, lacked access to structured guidance and did not receive the same exposure to health education or early pathways into medical careers.

Inspired by the college-preparation and bridge programs that supported him during high school, as well as his wish that he had been exposed to medicine earlier in his own journey, Jared began developing KHILP in 2024. He also recognized that he and his family had not always had access to proper health education, which further motivated him to create meaningful opportunities for others. Jared envisioned KHILP as a way to give students the same sense of opportunity, mentorship, and direction that had once helped shape his own path. His vision was to create more than a seminar series. He wanted to build a program that combined kidney-health education, leadership development, academic skill-building, and long-term empowerment.

With guidance from Dr. Anjay Rastogi and support from Bruin Beans leadership, KHILP officially launched in 2025 as an annual initiative dedicated to student training, kidney-health advocacy, and community impact. Under Jared’s leadership, the program has emphasized not only preparing students for futures in medicine, public health, and science, but also equipping them to become advocates who improve health literacy within their own communities.

For Jared, KHILP represents a simple but powerful mission: potential exists everywhere, but access is not. Through KHILP, he hopes to help close that gap and empower the next generation of healthcare leaders.